Following tragic explosion, West Pharmaceuticals, Lenoir County have bright future

At 1:27 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2003, the ground shook throughout Kinston and Lenoir County when West Pharmaceuticals Company exploded. Ten years have passed since that fateful day that eventually saw six West employees die and dozens more injured. Positivity came out of the tragedy, though, as the community and company embraced each other -- and both are stronger a decade later.

Ten years on from the catastrophic explosion at West Pharmaceutical Services’ old facility — a disaster that left six dead and nearly 40 injured — the march of time and progress proved itself once again.

The destroyed building on the Rouse Road Extension near the Global TransPark is gone. A new facility, online and operating by March 2004, continues to thrive and expand next to U.S. 70 West. When the new plant started shipping products, there were 210 employees on the payroll. Now there are about 325 and more to come.

“We have some really great employees,” said Keith Montgomery, West human resources manager. “They stood behind the company throughout that event, and they’re very, very positive. They recognize good companies do things for their employees, and to make sure that their jobs are here, that they can go home safe. Realistically, our people haven’t missed a beat.

“They very much know their jobs, they value their jobs, they value their company, they value the community. So, it’s not difficult from that perspective. They recognize and they certainly miss their colleagues, and those that were injured, as well. But, they have rebounded greatly.”

To some degree, the events of Jan. 29, 2003, always had a place at the new West building. By the entrance stands a memorial with the names of the workers who died from the explosion.

But today is a special day of remembrance.

“It’s going to be a private event, it’s been 10 years, and we want to respect our employees’ privacy and their feelings,” said Troy Player, West senior director of operations. “We’re going to have a small memorial service (today) at the plant for West employees.

“Our CEO, Don Morel, will be speaking. He knows — from his time when this was going on — many of the employees. It’ll be a time for him to talk to them, and for them to ask questions and talk to him about what’s going on in the business, also.”

Morel, the company’s chairman and CEO, said he is looking forward to talking to his employees today.

“I think they should be very proud of what they have done,” Morel said. “I think that everybody can take a great deal of pride in the way that they responded and in the way they have looked after one another; they supported the families of those that were lost or were injured. They can take pride in the fact the company stood by them in what was obviously a very dark and uncertain time.

“Our business is strong and their future is bright.”

That fateful day

Many in Kinston and Lenoir County will never forget Jan. 29, 2003 — and where they were at 1:27 p.m., when the explosion occurred at West.

Page 2 of 4 - Bruce Parson, then the president of the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce, was standing on Queen Street.

“I heard the noise and felt the shockwave,” Parson recalled. “I thought it was a plane crash; the noise came from the area of the airport, so I figured it was a plane crash, which were the first reports.”

Greg Smith, who was the Kinston Department of Public Safety director in January 2003, was at KDPS headquarters, which was then in the old Federal building. He said he felt the reverberations in the building.

“I heard a lot of radio traffic about an explosion; I asked someone in the hall if we were running a drill somewhere and they said, ‘No,’ ” said Smith, who retired from the KDPS on Dec. 31, 2009, and is now a partner with Down East Protection Systems. “At that point, we knew something was wrong.”

Initial reports were that an airplane had crashed into the building.

“Because the city of Kinston has responsibility for the airport proper, I requested a Level 3 (the most serious tier) alert at the airport,” Smith said. “It activated every volunteer fire department in the county.”

Bud Herring was on duty at the plant when the explosion happened. Extensive investigations by the federal government eventually determined dust from the compounding operation up in the airspace above the ceiling tiles caused the explosion.

“It got dark, and I turned around and looked back and saw a little white flash, and it’s all I can tell you,” Herring recalled on Monday. “I know one thing — thank the Lord I got out of there.”

The terrible news made its way quickly to Pennsylvania, where Morel — who had only taken over the reins of the company nine months earlier — was participating in a supplier recognition ceremony. He dashed home after an urgent telephone call about the accident and turned on a TV.

“All I saw was the aerial photography by the CNN helicopter, flying over the site,” Morel said. “Looking at the flames and destruction, it was an unbelievable scene. I threw some clothes in a bag and told my wife I didn’t know when I’d be home.”

There was inclement weather that day in Pennsylvania, so Morel had to scramble to find a plane to take him to Kinston. He finally arrived in Kinston around 8:30 p.m., about seven hours after the explosion.

When he arrived at the local command center, he said it was “a scene of some chaos.”

“They were battling the fire that was still going on in the raw materials warehouse at that point,” he said. “We had a difficult time getting an accurate count of number of employees that were on the site at the time of the accident. We were trying, as quickly as we could, to reconcile who had been injured. We knew we had lost a couple of folks — we just didn’t know how many.

Page 3 of 4 - “The hardest part was getting accurate and up-to-date information on the employees.”

Only an hour or so earlier, Smith asked for volunteers to go through the structure in an attempt to find more survivors. A dozen of his firefighters stepped up for the mission.

“Twelve guys immediately volunteered,” Smith recalled. “Walking down in that building in ankle deep to knee deep water, I had North Lenoir (Volunteer Fire Department) command and (Lenoir County Emergency Services Director) Roger (Dail) talking to me in my headset telling me where people might be. They were saying, ‘Go to the third machine,’ but I had to say, ‘The machines are everywhere; they’re not where they were.’ ”

Smith, Dail and NLVFD Deral Raynor — the scene commander — eventually used ductwork above the machines to determine locations — and to find another body.

“You could see blood marks and hand marks on walls, where people had tried to get out,” Smith said. “There were shoes floating around in the water. It was a real eerie scene when we went back in there to see if anyone else was left behind.”

In all, six people perished in the explosion. Three people — William Arthur Gray Sr., Faye Jones Wilkins and James Clarence Byrd — passed away that day, while Kevin M. Cruiess died on Jan. 31, 2003, Milton Murrell passed away on Feb. 18, 2003, and Allen Earl “Butch” Grant died on March 3, 2003, following injuries sustained in the explosion.

Rebuilding for the future

Morel said keeping West Pharmaceuticals in Kinston and Lenoir County was not a tough decision.

“We had always had a good relationship with Lenoir County and with Kinston,” Morel said. “The plant had always had an outstanding reputation with our customers for the quality of products produced and the attitude of the folks on the ground.”

While Parson and his team — which included (among many others) Group III Management owner Skip Greene III — negotiated to keep West in Lenoir County, the community was stepping up to help. Blood drives were held in the subsequent days and a charity basketball game sponsored by The Free Press and the Lenoir-Greene United Way raised thousands of dollars for the West family.

Local businesses also stepped up; Parson said local manufacturers put up money to help West employees through their tough times.

“The community at large knew this was a good company and a good employer,” Parson said. “The community knew West was hurting, too, because they were a close-knit group.”

Parson, now the manager of business operations at Lenoir Community College, said he walked away from every meeting with Morel and West leaders very impressed.

“The West company was just fabulous,” Parson said. “It was unbelievable just how community-oriented they were. They could’ve said, ‘This happened and we know there are going to be a lot of legal issues here so we’re just going to withdraw,’ but they didn’t. They jumped right in and said if there was any way they could stay, they’d do that.”

Page 4 of 4 - While West’s leaders were formally deciding to remain in Kinston, they also provided work for every local worker who wanted it, sending them to West plants in Florida and Nebraska before eventually bringing them back to Kinston.

Player, West’s senior director of operations since November 2003, also praised his Kinston workers.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve built this plant we’ve continued to grow, to expand it,” Player said. “We’ve gotten support from the city and the county and the state to build and expand, and we’ve continued to grow. We’ve added employees. I think it’s important that we have great employees. This area is a great place for people to come from and work at West.

“And we’ll continue to do those things.”

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Bryan Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com.